ther this lion is not that hungry?"

The first girl shook back her wealth of reddish brown hair and looked at
the speaker, her brown eyes sparkling with laughter. She said, "We
_can't_ know, Javan--not until he either springs through the fire or
turns around and goes away."

If the words brought any comfort to Javan, his actions failed to show
it. Once more he shifted his position until he was close to sitting in
the burning branches and the fingers of his right hand were trembling
uncontrollably as he groped for his flint-tipped spear.

"Dylara jests, Javan," the tall, broad-shouldered man next to him said.
"There are too many of us for even several lions to attack."

"You say that, Jotan," Dylara said, "because you do not know Sadu as I
know him. Often he will charge a hundred warriors through fires far
larger than ours, yet at times several lions have run away from one man
walking alone in the jungle. More than any other beast, Sadu is a
creature of moods, and no one can say for sure what he will do."

* * * * *

The third man in the group rose now to scrape the remaining food on his
plate into the fire. He said, "We are certainly in no position to
dispute with Dylara the habits of animals." There was a subtle note of
condescension in his voice that only Jotan and the princess Alurna
noticed. "You must remember that Dylara is different from us. Most of
her life has been spent among the people of the caves, and there can be
no doubt but that the barbarians know the jungle and its life far better
than we can ever hope to."

Jotan's pale blue eyes frosted over and the hard, firm angle of his jaw
tightened. For nearly two moons now he had endured Tamar's gibes at his
love for a girl who had been a barbarian slave of Sephar's court. Many
times during those sixty suns had Tamar said that no member of Ammad's
ruling class, as was Jotan, had a right to take as mate some half-savage
cave girl. There was such a thing, argued Tamar, as _noblesse oblige_,
and Jotan was not only alienating his friends by this mad passion but
breaking the laws of his class and his country.

Not that Tamar had anything personal against Dylara. On the contrary, he
thought her beautiful and as gracious and regal as Alurna herself. But
there was the matter of birth and blood--barriers too great for
acceptance as the noble Jotan's mate.

All this was in Jotan's thoughts as he answered Tamar's last remark.
"Perha